joeygoldnheart

Joey Gold'n Heart

 

ILR # 291483

gelding  b. 10-12-2016

Eagles' Nest' Americus (aka "Bull") x Rosa O'Joy

 

 

 

Joey has truly exceptional bone and muscle, an inquisitive mind, surprising agility and jaw-dropping endurance ... all with an excellent classic coat icing his physical cake. We would have expected Joey to mature around 44" (both parents are in that ballpark), but his dam developed a molar abscess while Joey was still in utero, and that definitely set back Joey's birth size and subsequent growth — small-but-mighty Joey stands a mere 41" at the withers.

Joey came to us rather by accident. He was a single baby, then sold with his mother to people who were entirely new-to-llamas. Their llama mentor recognized the potential for trouble and connected them with us, and — only because we were resoundingly impressed with Joey — we agreed to buy Joey and work with him before his rather forward and sometimes out-of-control behavior progressed to dangerous.

It took a bit of time, but Joey has finally got it straight that self-control is a virtue ... except in the breeding pen. We gave him a lot of chances to improve and as recently as 2024 we thought we'd turned the corner, but even our level of skill and savvy isn't (yet) enough. Once Joey fixated on HIS female, he HAD to have her, his hard-earned self-control crumbled, and he became physically dangerous to handle.

With three of Joey's offspring to evaluate, we noted that all three have a degree of Joey's intensity and tendency to fixate on their "one thing", even though the focus of that fixation is quite individual. We can handle them just fine, but they're definitely not for just anyone, so we had Joey castrated in the fall of 2025.

With our own goals shifting and our time at a premium, we have to acknowledge that we don't NEED to hang on to Joey, so he is available to the right home. That being said, we aren't very optimistic about finding him a good-fit home anywhere else. Joey's primary skill set is "pack llama with no quit in him" ... but, see "stands a mere 41" at the withers" above. Few — if any — people are going to give Joey a chance.

Joey does have a hair-trigger reaction to other llamas who are crowding him. It's well within the spectrum of llamas-in-general, but Joey is a poor match with someone who is still in their learning curve.

Joey is also NOT the right guy for people who don't allow llamas to have opinions and input. or who think unwanted behavior is best met with force.

Joey came with his call name (Joey) and a partially-complete registration form, leaving us to flesh out a suitable registered name. "Gold'n Heart" reflects Joey's ultimately kind and noncombative soul; we chose the spelling to honor his beloved grandsire Golc'n Hawk (who was also definitely not gold-colored).

Meet Joey's offspring: